Fitch Ratings has affirmed the National Ratings of eight Tunisian leasing and factoring companies and upgraded the National Long-Term (LT) Rating of Enda Tamweel SA (Enda) to ‘BBB(tun)’/Stable from ‘BBB-(tun)’/Stable.
The rating actions follow the completion of a peer review of nine Tunisian non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), it said in a statement Wednesday.
These are seven leasing companies: BTK Leasing (BTKL), Arab Tunisian Lease (ATL), Attijari Leasing (AL), Compagnie Internationale de Leasing (CIL), Hannibal Lease SA (Hannibal), BH Leasing (BHL) and Tunisie Leasing et Factoring (TLF), as well as one factoring company, Union De Factoring (Unifactor; UF) and a microfinance company, Enda.
Fitch said the upgrade of Enda principally reflects Enda’s stronger and resilient business profile which is in our view less negatively affected by the continued challenging Tunisian operating environment when compared to leasing and factoring peers.
National Ratings reflect the creditworthiness of an issuer relative to the country’s best credit and relative to peers operating within that country. The Stable Outlooks on all National LT Ratings reflect our expectation that upside and downside ratings pressures are equally balanced relative to peers’.
The National Ratings of BTKL, CIL, Hannibal, TLF, Enda and UF are driven by their standalone creditworthiness. AL, ATL and BHL’s ratings are support-driven, based on support from institutional shareholders.
Fitch said The Outlooks on all National LT Ratings are Stable. For support-driven ratings, this reflects the rating agency’s opinion that support assumptions regarding institutional supporters’ ability and that propensity to provide support will remain unchanged.
“For ratings driven by standalone assessments, this reflects our expectations that the creditworthiness of the rated entities relative to each other will not experience significant changes over the rating horizon,” it added.
